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Leap: A new gesture based interface for devices

458 points by travisglines 14y ago

mrsebastian 14y ago
Better start working on my arm muscles...
seshagiric 14y ago
Motions like they use in the fighter jet game or the shooting game (and some others) may not come naturally to everyone. In fact the one for continuous shooting specifically seems to be counter intuitive. But the idea of bringing such gesture based interaction to just about any device is really great.
- jachwe 14y ago
  Motions like using a mouse or a keyboard are not a single bit more intuitive for flying planes or shootings guns. It just an issue of familiarisation with the interface as it was with the mouse, as it was the keyboard. Beside that, it really doesn't matter as these were only two examples of a large variety of possible applications. If it doesn't fit the need - don't use it. There are other interfaces. There is no need for one interface to rule them all but for interfaces that really hits the spot for particular applications. Regarding Leap: Looks really promising. Though i would prefere if it would be "hidden". Anyhow, can't wait to get my on it. Or over it.
simonbarker87 14y ago
As a concept this is pretty awesome and it removes the need to touch your screen so I guess you can move the sensor closer to a more relaxed place, I can see it getting tiring pretty quickly. Just like a standing desk though I guess you just get used to it over time. Aside from end use issues, the tech behind this is very nice
- mrsebastian 14y ago
  Any idea what the tech behind it is? They're very vague on the website, and my patent searches are turning up empty. I guess some kind of infrared thing?
  - rapind 14y ago
    Some relative of Kinect if I had to guess.
    - fldrog 14y ago
      Kinect is using stereo-vision using 2 cameras...I don't think they have the same technology here
      - th0ma5 14y ago
        you must be thinking of something else. kinect has two cameras, one for laser IR particle-filter type stuff, and then an rgb camera. it isn't stereo vision with two regular 2d cameras, however, doing displacement math. it is looking at the grid of dots projected and seeing where the dots moved in order to create a depth map.
      - ajax77 14y ago
        Yeah, no. Kinect uses an IR emitter with an IR-based depth camera, there's nothing stereo about it. A regular RGB camera adds color, but that is all.
        daenz 14y ago
        Not to nitpick, but there is a stereo aspect to it. The IR projector is offset laterally from the IR camera, and this is critical to evaluating the depth, because the disparity of the IR dots is more extreme the greater the distance between the emitter and the camera.
        rileya 14y ago
        It is actually exactly stereo, except one of the cameras is replaced with an IR projector; you basically do the standard stereo math as though the projector is a camera 'seeing' the image that is being projected.
AndrewHampton 14y ago
The first thing I thought after watching the video was how much money will they make with pre-orders on this site and how much would they have made with a kickstarter campaign?
CWIZO 14y ago
I really can't imagine using this for a longer period of time. Maybe as an extension of keyboard and mouse/trackpad that you would use to scroll trough pages when researching something or stuff like that. You still need a keyboard to type as far as I can see. That being said; I really like the idea and would love to know the tech behind it.
___Calv_Dee___ 14y ago
No SDK love for Canadian developers?
- CWIZO 14y ago
  Just USA it seems :\
- loceng 14y ago
  Pretty shitty. It comes across to me like they're trying to give a head-start to developers in the US; Not the best way to welcome the international developer community.
- ChrisFornof 14y ago
  Dev kits go to anyone internationally. Pre-orders are domestic only (for the moment). And we've got nothing against our northern neighbors, nor is it some grand favoritism conspiracy. Pure rollout logistics. Lots of people are getting confused on this point, we'll announce more shortly.
  - kazuya 14y ago
    Hmm I've just pre-ordered two from Japan (and applied to the dev program too). I believe the form included international locations, can you confirm it?
friggeri 14y ago
I absolutely love the concept of using something akin to chopsticks to manipulate data.
sravfeyn 14y ago
That looks like Tony Stark's interface, except this is in 2D.
mattmanser 14y ago
Already a lot of negativity here... To me this looks amazing and although LEAP seem to be pushing for you to get rid of your mouse/keyboard, personally I think this is probably best as an addition to it. Imagine if you had one of these built into the keyboard. You're typing an email need to add a location switch over to google maps, hands off keyboard as you manipulate it around to get a decent resolution, 'tap' the address bar to copy it, swipe left to switch back to the email program, tap again to paste and boom carry on typing. You wouldn't need to be using it all the time for it to be extremely useful. We keyboard jockeys sometimes forget how much faster something like this would make the less shortcut-key knowledgeable users!
- elisk 14y ago
  As much as I would love toying with this, it really all about implementation. There are a lot of issues to consider - what if I mean to swipe one thing but the system recognizes another? how is that handled? Does it calculate the position of my head and the perspective I'm seeing? I agree with the above comment that this would ideally be an addition to our growing arsenal of HIDs, including keyboard, mouse, touch mouse, joystick, wacom tablets, and others are not intended to replace one or the other, most of them are complementary to other HIDs.
- ChrisFornof 14y ago
  as a side note. Consider how many positions you can put your fingers into. Now both hands? Now imagine if each position was mapped to a different shortcut... How many unique positions could you map? (compare to keyboard).
  - patrickk 14y ago
    Imagine surgeons who can't touch a surface with his/her hands due to hygiene concerns using it to manipulate various images/scans of the patient on the table in front of him/her.
    - Zolomon 14y ago
      You mean like http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-in-the-operating-room/277 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-... and http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgical-assistant-testing/ http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgi... ?
twelvechairs 14y ago
I can't see why there is so much negativity as to end use applications. I can see lots of potential for this - slideshow presentations, laptops (goodbye annoying trackpad), as well as a stylus-and-tablet replacement for designers, etc. etc. I think the key however the key will be in the recognition of subtler gestures. If you can show me a man using two hands to type, then moving them not far from the keyboard to activate simple gestures for navigating a document, I'd be really sold that this is for everybody.
- d0mine 14y ago
  If they claim a submillimeter accuracy; I don't see why you can't type without a physical keyboard.
  - mike-cardwell 14y ago
    Haptic feedback
cryptide 14y ago
I think i'll need to demo this unit before I purchase it. I remember getting burned in the early nineties by the power glove's cool commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo
wwwtyro 14y ago
At that size and price point, it could have a significant impact on mobile UI. I'm looking at you, google glass.
needle0 14y ago
Forget the desktop. With the sensor being this small, I can imagine hanging this from your neck and have gesture sensing anywhere, SixthSense-style. ( http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/ http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/ )
username3 14y ago
Does this have no lag or is that a concept video?
- pbreit 14y ago
  There is very little, if any, perceptible lag.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pbreit 14y ago
This is very cool technology. The company was formerly "Ocuspec". One break-through is using very inexpensive hardware (<$5 at RadioShack) to get that sub-mm resolution. At the other end of the spectrum, they can cover a football field (and more in the future). What they are showing now is just the beginning. Kudos to rolling out with an SDK. I can inly imagine what sorts of applications developers will dream up.
- jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago
  What's the hardware? Two infrared cameras and a laser dot pattern of some sort?
  - davydka 14y ago
    2 normal digital cameras and a uv or infrared dot pattern. I think the glass is a uv filter. I got to play around with one at work.
    - georgieporgie 14y ago
      So, this is somewhat similar to the Kinect, right? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/
    - ChrisFornof 14y ago
      Close enough.
halfnelson 14y ago
this isn't a concept - I got to play with the Fruit ninja demo as well as the point cloud when I interviewed there. It really is that fast.
danblick 14y ago
Not to be cynical, but this reminds me a little of Alan Kay's comment: """ By the way, Sketchpad was the first system where it was discovered that the light pen was a very bad input device. The blood runs out of your hand in about 20 seconds, and leaves it numb. And in spite of that it’s been re-invented at least 90 times in the last 25 years. """ from http://archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 http://archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 around 7:10
- JackC 14y ago
  I think there will be some things it's great at and some it's terrible at. Here's one for free: how about using this to create the Rosetta Stone of sign language? Or a portable sign-to-speech translator? (These are hard problems for other reasons, but this thing brings you a lot closer.) Think of it like this: Alan Kay isn't wrong, but you could say the same thing about any input. The mouse is a very bad input device. It takes forever to use it for on-screen typing. The keyboard is a very bad input device. It can't tell how hard you're hitting each key when you do musical typing in GarageBand. The microphone is a very bad input device. Voice control is way slower than just clicking the menu item you want ... If this thing is real, then within a couple of years there will be a dozen reasons to refuse to buy a computer without one.
  - cturner 14y ago
    (I like the idea of a pressure-sensitive keyboard. Could be useful for music. Probably hard to engineer in a way that would be useful and which wouldn't compromise button input. Blue-switch cherry keyboards are annoying to type on. Still, interesting idea.) You're papering over the problems with relativism. The keyboard is rapid to use and flexible. Although it has the possibility of physical health problems with RSI, with light pen interaction you have the certainty of pain and fatigue. Sign speakers don't need sign-to-speech - there are keyboards already. There's been multiple attempts at text to speech as well, and the result is more fiddly, less flexible and less rapid than you can get with a keyboard. There could be an argument that keyboards are complicated and have a learning curve. But computers are the super-tool of our age. Why would you not learn use of a tool that gives you combines great power with flexibility. I think we still have discussions about alternative user interfaces that hark back to the way humans interact with each other because most of the population are not yet expert keyboard users. This will change. Once the developed world is flush with expert keyboard users, user interfaces will go back to putting greater emphasis on them.
elisk 14y ago
I want to play Modern Warfare 3 (or more likely BLOPS2) with that thing. I've already started thinking about some gestures that could be used for this, but I'm wondering, how hard it's going to be on the hand(s)? I mean with the mouse and keyboard (supposing PC gaming) the hands are resting on the table 90% of the time, with this the hand(s) will be up in the air. ...unless someone puts a nice glass table on top of that thing so that my hands could rest... could this work?
pullo 14y ago
wonder what they thought about 'gorilla arm'.also the demo did not show a way to type information. but looks really cool :))
- dclowd9901 14y ago
  > also the demo did not show a way to type information I don't think people in the gesture interface market are looking for ways to replace the essential function of the keyboard. For all intents and purposes, it's probably the best way to input textual data into a machine.
  - pullo 14y ago
    Keyboards are the also the only way ( until now) to input textual data.not implementing that makes this at best a companion device to existing setup and not a replacement. [edit]. voice to text transcriptions can be an alternative..
rglover 14y ago
If you're an interface designer (I am), you should pre-order this thing. This will be a standard form of interaction in a couple of years and you should jump on it early and start figuring out the kinks. Too cool.
- sktrdie 14y ago
  Yes!
- weego 14y ago
  It really won't. Have you any idea how tiring waving your arms around like that would be all day? There are so many use cases where it doesn't even work that would require a complete rethink of how anything is presented on in internet. For example how about the HN comments where it's pasted as code and it scrolls horizontally. Target that and scroll it with that system. As soon as you have a single use case where a mouse and keyboard is more effective you blow your value.
  - rglover 14y ago
    Hm, maybe. But that was my point with saying interface designers should hop on this: they design the interaction to be simple enough that it doesn't wear you out (at least, that's how I'd look at one facet of designing for this). Moreover, it's not enough to just copy our current understanding of UI over to a form of input like this. Of course that's the natural inclination, but in reality, interfaces will change and adapt to things like this (meaning scrolling may not exist and a whole new form of pagination may be invented). The "how" is up to the designers. More than anything, you really articulated my point by saying that "it really won't." You're right: as things stand in terms of interaction, this would become tiring. You just have to think of a way to make it not.
  - mr_luc 14y ago
    I'm familiar with the usual "arm-waving sucks" arguments against gesture-based inputs, but I was just wondering -- is there any reason this couldn't just replace the touchpad on laptops, maybe being integrated into the forward edge for a larger field of view? They do claim sub-mm accuracy; maybe applications in the small are realistic. So instead of arm-waving, think of rotating your hand just above the touchpad to rotate and object in 3d space, but briefly. And the touchpad would still work like a regular touchpad, but maybe you don't even need to touch it. Sub-mm accuracy seems to imply that really subtle gestures could work.
pbreit 14y ago
More demos: http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-hand/9742-1_53-50124905.html http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-hand/9... Funding announcement: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-announces-1275-million-series-a-funding-round-led-by-highland-capital-partners-2012-05-09 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-announces-1275-...
jamesrcole 14y ago
Looks like it'd be a nice augment to the usual keyboard & mouse/trackpad setup (& to a touchscreen, too). For some tasks (e.g. changing to a diff browser tab five across from the current one) I can imagine that pointing at it would be the quickest and easiest way to switch to it. I can imagine it'd get a bit tiring if you were relying on it too exclusively.
powatom 14y ago
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out - but I can't see it being widely adopted in the home any time soon. People who want gesture based stuff will use Kinect. However, I can see this being huge in the commercial market. I can easily imagine using something like this in a shop, or for presentations at work.
- egypturnash 14y ago
  Googling for "kinect price" gives me numbers of about $150; this is priced at $70. Even if we assume this is a discounted price to lure in pre-orders, that still leaves room for it to cost less. I would not think of getting a Kinect but my thought upon seeing the video was "I want to get one of these and use it to control the RasPi I'm sticking in some fake taxidermy along with a pico projector for a micro media PC."
- flipbrad 14y ago
  I think you're spot on. Every mall in the developed world could have easy to use 3D maps and offer/advert displays - that's a huge market right there, whether or not the desktop ends up being one.
gotrythis 14y ago
I've been searching all over for something like this as a potential mouse replacement to help with my finger tendinitis. I just pre-ordered. Also an interface designer, so I'm excited to see where this goes.
nextparadigms 14y ago
Google should be all over this. Microsoft has Kinect, there are rumors Apple has been working on it, too, and I know Google hired the product lead from Kinect a while ago (George something), but I haven't seen much come out of that. This could be very useful for Google TV and who knows what else in the future. Better to integrate it in the Google X lab.
netfire 14y ago
While waving your hand in front of a monitor looks pretty cool, its definitely not going to work well for most work or extended use. Also, I think the reason touch-based devices have caught on so well is that we like the tactile feedback of dragging our finger across a defined plane. I'd be interested to see what you could do if you projected an image onto a work surface to make that more interactive. Seems like it would be easier to draw or manipulate 2D things on a plane rather than trying to wave your hand in 3D space. (Image Manipulation, Graphic Editing, Maps, etc)
acgourley 14y ago
Let's have a constructive comment thread. Instead conveying love or hate for it, how about listing the cases it's good and bad for. good * Fruit Ninja - made for single finger input, short gameplay * Pinching and zooming maps - good because it's usually a short activity * CAD camera interactions - good for periodic strange rotation needs or showing a client that doesn't understand the normal movement hotkeys * Periodic writing with pencil tool bad * Shooters - can't turn player around, gameplay too long. * Longterm writing or drawing - too tiring
- Cushman 14y ago
  One of the things I've dreamed of using gestures for is controlling behavior (scrolling, navigation, etc.) in a second monitor without changing focus. I hope somebody implements that.
- benjamincburns 14y ago
  I'm not sure how they're handling variance in user perspective, but assuming they've got that figured out, if you were to couple this with a stereo vision setup and some form of haptic feedback a lot of companies doing 3D design (both CAD and 3D artwork) would eat this up. It won't replace a keyboard and mouse, but it would provide a much more "immersive" way of interacting with the media.
- jamesfrank 14y ago
  I disagree with you on the details a bit, but I think viewing this as good at somethings and bad at others is far more constructive than arguing that this should replace a mouse, keyboard etc. However, I would make the good/bad list a bit more general: * good for manipulating UI elements that represent 3D * bad for manipulating UI elements that represent 2D Maps and camera interactions (CAD) are perfect examples of things that represent 3D elements. Short games are another area that can represent 3D - longer games might also work well, but the user is likely to get tired of waving his/her arms around. Much of what we do on computers today is strictly 2D. Coding, word processing, most web browsing, email, etc. Pencil tools/drawing tools are similarly usually just a 2D activity, so using a 3D-capable tool and reducing your movements to 2D doesn't really make sense.
- 14y ago
SkyMarshal 14y ago
Love it. I was just wishing for this recently [1]. Now they just gotta turn it into a protocol and build it into monitors. 1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3988700 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3988700
Sidnicious 14y ago
I’d love to get one of these and play with it. Will the SDK and spec for talking to it be freely available after the initial batch of preorders and free dev kits? As a counterexample, Emoviv gave a TED talk a while ago showing off a headset that lets you control your computer with your mind. When you visit their website you discover that you can only develop with a $500 “developer edition” headset that comes with a single, nontransferrable license to use the SDK (additional licenses are $99). The consumer model of the headset only runs approved applications.
- ChrisFornof 14y ago
  Dev Kits ship for free to 20,000 developers in 1-3 months. Pre-orders are for consumers at $70 and ship this winter. The idea is to give all the hackers maximum access to create awesome apps and then deliver a healthy shiny ecosystem to the consumer. Also, we'd like to see a larger shift towards people creating things, so encouraging early adopters to get aboard the coding train is a positive trend. It's a huge new interaction space, and we're looking for innovators to explore it!
  - Sidnicious 14y ago
    That’s awesome. Are there any differences between the consumer model and the dev kit, other than the price (and will people who bought the consumer model be able to develop with it later)? Other people have asked about openness… will there be any kind of control over what programs can use it (i.e. do they need to be approved by you guys to work?)
  - elisk 14y ago
    So this will run approved software only as well? Well, that's a big turnoff for a dev. Why instead of maximizing the short term profit you concentrate on the long-term and make this system open with certain limitations to assure your business?
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  Contrast with Android where every device is a developer device - one tickbox in the settings is all that is required. No accounts, registration, handing over money, authorizing devices etc (yes I'm looking at you Apple).
cma 14y ago
Windows 8's tabletification will possibly end up being a smart move with the introduction of this thing.
blake8086 14y ago
Well I just pre-ordered one and applied for the dev kit. I don't even have a specific plan for this yet, but I think the 3-d object scanning ability alone makes this worth it.
kylebrown 14y ago
Wow.. I would love to develop for this. I dropped out of state U. after my 3rd year (math major), but that was years ago. At my current start-up, I have recently been forced to learn much more than I was expecting to about probabilistic graphical models and curve similarity measures (gladly though; always been interested in pattern recognition). Anyone with a vision for this, consider dropping me a line. I might be able to help.
- chime 14y ago
  I'd love to integrate it with my KType application ( http://ktype.net http://ktype.net ) or build a new software that converts hand gestures / ASL to speech. I think it's totally doable and would be a lot of fun technically too. What do you think?
  - kylebrown 14y ago
    Well, off the top of my head I don't see a straightforward way to integrate with KType (nice work btw!). Just because there would be so many possibilities for mapping hand gestures to the KType actions/commands. On the other hand, converting sign language to text/speech seems like it should be quite straightforward. Not knowing anything about sign language, I'm assuming signs map (more or less) one-to-one with words. The input from LEAP appears to be extremely high resolution, so if the sign gestures are properly normalized (and judging from the demo video, it looks like the LEAP SDK itself already does a good degree of input normalization), you should be able to just train your classifier (neural network, SVM, etc.) right out of the box. Of course, things are never as easy as they look so in all likelihood there are plenty of complications I'm completely overlooking at first glance. But I agree with you 100% that it sounds totally doable.
    - btr41n 14y ago
      So sign language isn't really one-to-one, but that is something that I really want to work with, so I look forward to getting a unit. I think this system has a lot of potential as a learning tool! Awesome job guys!
  - 14y ago
CubicleNinjas 14y ago
I'm happy that the team took their passion to execute one something so effectively. But not all ideas are good. It violates Fitt's law by placing all user interaction within a vertical band next to your computer. This is very uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most applications (because missing the interaction band is likely). If these were wireless gloves that I could more easily (with my arms in any location) then I'd love this.
- pilgrim689 14y ago
  "This is very uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most applications" You are forgetting that "most applications" are designed for a mouse and keyboard. A more useful critique would be to analyze the type of applications that can be built with LEAP in mind.
  - CubicleNinjas 14y ago
    Why would "a more useful critique" be looking at pro-LEAP applications? Is it because this what you want to hear? LEAP is a bad idea, not bad due to software, bad due to the constraints of human beings. You're literally arguing a logical fallacy by the way: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Negative_proof http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Negative_proof
    - pilgrim689 14y ago
      You don't understand my point. I was picking at how you claimed that X was bad because it can't be used for applications designed for Y. I also doubt your understanding of "negative proof"... But that's off-topic
      - CubicleNinjas 14y ago
        I addressed your point directly.
- FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
  Maybe it could have a better use in a Minority Report style setting, recreating a large gesture based interface without requiring gigantic multi-touch screens. Sat in front of a desk, with a keyboard and mouse in front of you, I can imagine it will have some pretty attractive uses, but might not be as comfortable long-term as gesticulating at a mounted whiteboard.
natemartin 14y ago
Did anyone get an email confirmation after applying for the dev kit? After I hit the button, it reloaded to the home page, and I haven't seen any emails.
- johnmmurray 14y ago
  Nope... haven't gotten anything yet. :-(
- ChrisFornof 14y ago
  Website is a little wonky at the moment. Bear with us guys. We'll get you your kits soon enough.
  - natemartin 14y ago
    Just wondering if I should fill it out a second time, since I never saw a confirmation screen. I understand it will take some time to ship, just want to know the application actually made it into the database! :)
- georgieporgie 14y ago
  I was taken to a confirmation page that read, "Your developer application has been confirmed. Thanks for your interest in Leap."
ChrisFornof 14y ago
Dev Kits (free) Ship international within 1-3 months. Pre-orders ($70) only ship domestic (for now) around winter. 20,000 dev kits are being made. We want to ensure this tech becomes ubiquitous. We're getting slammed with launch response. But if you guys have questions, we'll try to answer them here shortly. -Chris Community Builder
- dmvaldman 14y ago
  Waiting for the load to drop so I can try to get a preorder! Question: How can you render the "other side" of the hand at the 51+ second mark? If this is indeed possible, that's quite a remarkable technology you have.
  - acgourley 14y ago
    I suspect it's an illusion and that does not represent their true 3d point cloud. It's probably a skinned 3d mesh of a hand which is then moving in sync with the detected hand.
    - Schwolop 14y ago
      Their webpage suggests they can handle multiple devices connected to the one PC, so I was wondering whether they had another sensor out of shot above the scene pointing downwards. Actually - scrap that. A better hunch is that it's not structured light at all, but actually an electric field sensor. See this Quora answer (disclaimer, by someone who "knows shit all about this"): http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/What-is-the-technology-behind-Leap-Motion http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/What-is-the-technology-behi...
- georgieporgie 14y ago
  Please give us some technical details to satisfy our curiosity. Perhaps I missed it on the website, but I didn't notice any mention of how it functions (IR? Sound waves?), what sort of range of distances it works in, etc.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
joshu 14y ago
Structured light?
EzGraphs 14y ago
Another interesting application not mentioned yet is 3d scanning... and their site mentions 3d modeling work as the initial motivation for the product.
saijanai 14y ago
signing and finger spelling. If it can be made portable, it is a HUGE breakthrough for certain people.
jamesflorentino 14y ago
This is gonna be a pain in the arm for photoshoppers. But i'm interested to see this technology grow into popularity. I can't believe we're actually having something like this in our time. 20 years ago, you can only see stuff like these in science fiction novels and movies.
abecedarius 14y ago
There's no perceptible latency in its response to gestures -- I'm very impressed assuming it's not a rigged demo. (In videos I've seen of the Kinect the software responds to a gesture only after a noticeable fraction of a second.)
- paulbaumgart 14y ago
  It's not a rigged demo. (I saw them film it.)
  - abecedarius 14y ago
    Fantastic -- thanks.
- kscottz 14y ago
  It doesn't look like a rigged demo http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409264n http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409264n
squarecat 14y ago
We're almost there: http://youtubedoubler.com/49ni http://youtubedoubler.com/49ni (LEAP vs Minority Report)
iandanforth 14y ago
I'm sad the word 'robot' hasn't appeared in this thread yet. Let's correct that. Visual slam is great for medium distances, but pointclouds aren't really that dense and are slow to update. Also the lidar to make the point clouds is stupid expensive. Add one of these guys onto your robot and you've got a really cool set of 'wiskers.' Short range, highly sensitive, super fast update. I'd love to put several of these on a robot and use that to give it a sensitive field surrounding its body. Depending on how open the software and hardware are this will be a great addition to the robotics community.
- abecedarius 14y ago
  Great point. As far as openness, I'm concerned by this talk of an app store.
  - lucian1900 14y ago
    Indeed. I was going to apply as a developer, but that made me pause. Perhaps I'll reconsider at some other time.
  - hollerith 14y ago
    Even putting aside concerns about openness, the mere fact that they are talking this early about an app store is evidence that they're not focused on delivering value. Apple did not start talking about an app store for iDevices until they had millions of satisfied customers. I mean, why not use the Mac App Store? Maybe they have a good answer to that question, but if so, they should tell us what it is.
    - AndrewNoNumbers 14y ago
      Why would they use the Mac App Store? To throw profits to Apple?
      - jeffbcross 14y ago
        I was thinking Apple had this technology patented...maybe they have a licensing agreement that requires use of App Store.
auzieo 14y ago
ChrisFornof: What is the normal workflow after filling the dev kit application form? I got redirected to the homepage with no confirmation step or email. I wouldn't want to double-apply.
- georgieporgie 14y ago
  I was sent to a result page that read, "Your developer application has been confirmed. Thanks for your interest in Leap."
bitwize 14y ago
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo. Believe it when I see it live.
kreek 14y ago
Interfaces like this look cool in movies but your hands aren't 'designed' to be above your heart for an extended period of time. Now if you had something like a drafting table with a touch screen I'd be first in line.
- pfraze 14y ago
  Agreed, but I don't want a replacement interface; I want a companion to my keyboard. Type type type. Throw that away. Type type. Make that bigger. Type type type type. Run that. I can't wait.
  - corysama 14y ago
    Mount it above your monitor pointing down instead of setting it below pointing up. Basically, point it at your keyboard. Type, type, type, lift your wrist a couple inches, pinch, zoom, drag.
formax 14y ago
I'm calling fake or very optimistic to say the least. The promo video doesn't show a physical device, the price point seems ridiculously low especially for a resolution of 0.01mm. And also there is this http://bit.ly/KOqDi2 http://bit.ly/KOqDi2 the physical hand and the point cloud don't match. It's like someone is moving their hand(s) fast to mimic the movement of the visualization.
- dsirijus 14y ago
  Been running a little through all the vids of it around. I'm still undecided. Perspective on each supposedly "fake" screenshot could explain the mismatch. In your example, you actually don't see how far his fingers are apart. Also, it might be attributed to that particular finger going to the borders of the 3D interaction space of Leap.
nollidge 14y ago
We asked one simple question: ‘What feel[’]s natural?’ Two or three hundred thousand[s] lines of code later The Leap is a small iPod[ ]sized USB peripheral Do you support [w]indows? When do dev-kits ship[ ] They are in serious need of a copyeditor.
amatsukawa 14y ago
They should mount this inside a keyboard, I don't want an extra dongle randomly lying on my table. On a completely different note, though, I wonder what the range on these things is. Could have excellent applications to robotics, I hope they don't completely close the vision outputs behind their own gesture APIs or something...
ChuckMcM 14y ago
I'd love something that was a combination of the two, a touch surface and something like this looking 'down' toward that surface at what my hands were doing. I could make typing like motions on the touch surface for typing. But more importantly mostly my hands would be resting on something rather than hanging out in front of me.
c0mpute 14y ago
Very interesting and looks slick (in the videos). So could this be a Flutter.io competitor? Flutter.io is purely software driven. I feel flutter will release a SDK/API as well at some point. So I think intuition suggests that whoever can execute these best, will likely succeed: - Rich feature set to capture gestures. - Simple API. Should be easy to integrate with 3rd party apps. - Performance. Leap already has an edge in that they are releasing a SDK, Flutter should follow this quickly (hopefully). Flutter makes it easy to get it to people as it is just pure software, but can they achieve capturing rich gestures? Exciting times.
Garbage 14y ago
From FAQ How can I get a free developer kit? We’re distributing thousands of kits to qualified developers, because, well, we want to see what kinds of incredible things you can all do with our technology. So wow us. Actually, register to get the SDK and a free Leap device first, and then wow us. Do you support windows? Yes! We also support native touch emulation for Windows 8. How about Linux? Linux support is on the agenda. When do dev-kits ship Depending on which batch you’re in; anywhere from 1-3 months. What are the tech specifications for the LEAP? TBD.
cbr 14y ago
This looks awesome, but very tiring.
mkramlich 14y ago
So the obvious weakness here is that this will be less precise than a control system that uses direct touch such as a keyboard, mouse or touch pen. It looks fun and dramatic though.
Someone 14y ago
The cynic in me thinks: - I have to see it before I believe it. - If this works as advertised, this company will never ship the product. They will be bought within months for a huge sum of money, even if they do not want to be bought. Reason for that is: - Litigation, litigation! They will need deep pockets to defend themselves against patent claims.
- xilei 14y ago
  Do you seriously think they haven't got that covered?
mikelbring 14y ago
First thing that came to my mind was Tony Stark's computer.
honzacz 14y ago
Add some weight bracelets on your wrists and work out while using your computer:)
postscapes1 14y ago
Surprised by the negative reactions here. If Kinect has shown us anything it is this thing will be used for a host of things not shown in their demo videos. Robots, Interactive Art, etc,
zooey 14y ago
not good...it's tiring to not rest your fingers on a surface. your muscles need to rest, your fingers need to touch.
nico_h 14y ago
Beside Google Maps and fruit ninja, what are the apps demoed in the video ?
dmbarbour 14y ago
I see a lot of potential for a new class of musical instruments based on waving your hands.
dfgonzalez 14y ago
I already want this as a captcha solution: Say 3 with your fingers to prove you are not a robot.

458 points by travisglines 14y ago

Better start working on my arm muscles...

Motions like they use in the fighter jet game or the shooting game (and some others) may not come naturally to everyone. In fact the one for continuous shooting specifically seems to be counter intuitive. But the idea of bringing such gesture based interaction to just about any device is really great.

jachwe 14y ago
Motions like using a mouse or a keyboard are not a single bit more intuitive for flying planes or shootings guns. It just an issue of familiarisation with the interface as it was with the mouse, as it was the keyboard. Beside that, it really doesn't matter as these were only two examples of a large variety of possible applications. If it doesn't fit the need - don't use it. There are other interfaces. There is no need for one interface to rule them all but for interfaces that really hits the spot for particular applications. Regarding Leap: Looks really promising. Though i would prefere if it would be "hidden". Anyhow, can't wait to get my on it. Or over it.

simonbarker87 14y ago

As a concept this is pretty awesome and it removes the need to touch your screen so I guess you can move the sensor closer to a more relaxed place, I can see it getting tiring pretty quickly. Just like a standing desk though I guess you just get used to it over time. Aside from end use issues, the tech behind this is very nice

mrsebastian 14y ago
Any idea what the tech behind it is? They're very vague on the website, and my patent searches are turning up empty. I guess some kind of infrared thing?
- rapind 14y ago
  Some relative of Kinect if I had to guess.
  - fldrog 14y ago
    Kinect is using stereo-vision using 2 cameras...I don't think they have the same technology here
    - th0ma5 14y ago
      you must be thinking of something else. kinect has two cameras, one for laser IR particle-filter type stuff, and then an rgb camera. it isn't stereo vision with two regular 2d cameras, however, doing displacement math. it is looking at the grid of dots projected and seeing where the dots moved in order to create a depth map.
    - ajax77 14y ago
      Yeah, no. Kinect uses an IR emitter with an IR-based depth camera, there's nothing stereo about it. A regular RGB camera adds color, but that is all.
      - daenz 14y ago
        Not to nitpick, but there is a stereo aspect to it. The IR projector is offset laterally from the IR camera, and this is critical to evaluating the depth, because the disparity of the IR dots is more extreme the greater the distance between the emitter and the camera.
      - rileya 14y ago
        It is actually exactly stereo, except one of the cameras is replaced with an IR projector; you basically do the standard stereo math as though the projector is a camera 'seeing' the image that is being projected.

AndrewHampton 14y ago

The first thing I thought after watching the video was how much money will they make with pre-orders on this site and how much would they have made with a kickstarter campaign?

CWIZO 14y ago

I really can't imagine using this for a longer period of time. Maybe as an extension of keyboard and mouse/trackpad that you would use to scroll trough pages when researching something or stuff like that. You still need a keyboard to type as far as I can see. That being said; I really like the idea and would love to know the tech behind it.

___Calv_Dee___ 14y ago

No SDK love for Canadian developers?

CWIZO 14y ago
Just USA it seems :\
loceng 14y ago
Pretty shitty. It comes across to me like they're trying to give a head-start to developers in the US; Not the best way to welcome the international developer community.
ChrisFornof 14y ago
Dev kits go to anyone internationally. Pre-orders are domestic only (for the moment). And we've got nothing against our northern neighbors, nor is it some grand favoritism conspiracy. Pure rollout logistics. Lots of people are getting confused on this point, we'll announce more shortly.
- kazuya 14y ago
  Hmm I've just pre-ordered two from Japan (and applied to the dev program too). I believe the form included international locations, can you confirm it?

friggeri 14y ago

I absolutely love the concept of using something akin to chopsticks to manipulate data.

sravfeyn 14y ago

That looks like Tony Stark's interface, except this is in 2D.

mattmanser 14y ago

Already a lot of negativity here... To me this looks amazing and although LEAP seem to be pushing for you to get rid of your mouse/keyboard, personally I think this is probably best as an addition to it. Imagine if you had one of these built into the keyboard. You're typing an email need to add a location switch over to google maps, hands off keyboard as you manipulate it around to get a decent resolution, 'tap' the address bar to copy it, swipe left to switch back to the email program, tap again to paste and boom carry on typing. You wouldn't need to be using it all the time for it to be extremely useful. We keyboard jockeys sometimes forget how much faster something like this would make the less shortcut-key knowledgeable users!

elisk 14y ago
As much as I would love toying with this, it really all about implementation. There are a lot of issues to consider - what if I mean to swipe one thing but the system recognizes another? how is that handled? Does it calculate the position of my head and the perspective I'm seeing? I agree with the above comment that this would ideally be an addition to our growing arsenal of HIDs, including keyboard, mouse, touch mouse, joystick, wacom tablets, and others are not intended to replace one or the other, most of them are complementary to other HIDs.
ChrisFornof 14y ago
as a side note. Consider how many positions you can put your fingers into. Now both hands? Now imagine if each position was mapped to a different shortcut... How many unique positions could you map? (compare to keyboard).
- patrickk 14y ago
  Imagine surgeons who can't touch a surface with his/her hands due to hygiene concerns using it to manipulate various images/scans of the patient on the table in front of him/her.
  - Zolomon 14y ago
    You mean like http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-in-the-operating-room/277 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-... and http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgical-assistant-testing/ http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgi... ?

twelvechairs 14y ago

I can't see why there is so much negativity as to end use applications. I can see lots of potential for this - slideshow presentations, laptops (goodbye annoying trackpad), as well as a stylus-and-tablet replacement for designers, etc. etc. I think the key however the key will be in the recognition of subtler gestures. If you can show me a man using two hands to type, then moving them not far from the keyboard to activate simple gestures for navigating a document, I'd be really sold that this is for everybody.

d0mine 14y ago
If they claim a submillimeter accuracy; I don't see why you can't type without a physical keyboard.
- mike-cardwell 14y ago
  Haptic feedback

cryptide 14y ago

I think i'll need to demo this unit before I purchase it. I remember getting burned in the early nineties by the power glove's cool commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo

wwwtyro 14y ago

At that size and price point, it could have a significant impact on mobile UI. I'm looking at you, google glass.

needle0 14y ago

Forget the desktop. With the sensor being this small, I can imagine hanging this from your neck and have gesture sensing anywhere, SixthSense-style. ( http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/ http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/ )

username3 14y ago

Does this have no lag or is that a concept video?

pbreit 14y ago
There is very little, if any, perceptible lag.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

pbreit 14y ago

This is very cool technology. The company was formerly "Ocuspec". One break-through is using very inexpensive hardware (<$5 at RadioShack) to get that sub-mm resolution. At the other end of the spectrum, they can cover a football field (and more in the future). What they are showing now is just the beginning. Kudos to rolling out with an SDK. I can inly imagine what sorts of applications developers will dream up.

jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago
What's the hardware? Two infrared cameras and a laser dot pattern of some sort?
- davydka 14y ago
  2 normal digital cameras and a uv or infrared dot pattern. I think the glass is a uv filter. I got to play around with one at work.
  - georgieporgie 14y ago
    So, this is somewhat similar to the Kinect, right? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/
  - ChrisFornof 14y ago
    Close enough.

halfnelson 14y ago

this isn't a concept - I got to play with the Fruit ninja demo as well as the point cloud when I interviewed there. It really is that fast.

danblick 14y ago

Not to be cynical, but this reminds me a little of Alan Kay's comment: """ By the way, Sketchpad was the first system where it was discovered that the light pen was a very bad input device. The blood runs out of your hand in about 20 seconds, and leaves it numb. And in spite of that it’s been re-invented at least 90 times in the last 25 years. """ from http://archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 http://archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 around 7:10

JackC 14y ago
I think there will be some things it's great at and some it's terrible at. Here's one for free: how about using this to create the Rosetta Stone of sign language? Or a portable sign-to-speech translator? (These are hard problems for other reasons, but this thing brings you a lot closer.) Think of it like this: Alan Kay isn't wrong, but you could say the same thing about any input. The mouse is a very bad input device. It takes forever to use it for on-screen typing. The keyboard is a very bad input device. It can't tell how hard you're hitting each key when you do musical typing in GarageBand. The microphone is a very bad input device. Voice control is way slower than just clicking the menu item you want ... If this thing is real, then within a couple of years there will be a dozen reasons to refuse to buy a computer without one.
- cturner 14y ago
  (I like the idea of a pressure-sensitive keyboard. Could be useful for music. Probably hard to engineer in a way that would be useful and which wouldn't compromise button input. Blue-switch cherry keyboards are annoying to type on. Still, interesting idea.) You're papering over the problems with relativism. The keyboard is rapid to use and flexible. Although it has the possibility of physical health problems with RSI, with light pen interaction you have the certainty of pain and fatigue. Sign speakers don't need sign-to-speech - there are keyboards already. There's been multiple attempts at text to speech as well, and the result is more fiddly, less flexible and less rapid than you can get with a keyboard. There could be an argument that keyboards are complicated and have a learning curve. But computers are the super-tool of our age. Why would you not learn use of a tool that gives you combines great power with flexibility. I think we still have discussions about alternative user interfaces that hark back to the way humans interact with each other because most of the population are not yet expert keyboard users. This will change. Once the developed world is flush with expert keyboard users, user interfaces will go back to putting greater emphasis on them.

elisk 14y ago

I want to play Modern Warfare 3 (or more likely BLOPS2) with that thing. I've already started thinking about some gestures that could be used for this, but I'm wondering, how hard it's going to be on the hand(s)? I mean with the mouse and keyboard (supposing PC gaming) the hands are resting on the table 90% of the time, with this the hand(s) will be up in the air. ...unless someone puts a nice glass table on top of that thing so that my hands could rest... could this work?

pullo 14y ago

wonder what they thought about 'gorilla arm'.also the demo did not show a way to type information. but looks really cool :))

dclowd9901 14y ago
> also the demo did not show a way to type information I don't think people in the gesture interface market are looking for ways to replace the essential function of the keyboard. For all intents and purposes, it's probably the best way to input textual data into a machine.
- pullo 14y ago
  Keyboards are the also the only way ( until now) to input textual data.not implementing that makes this at best a companion device to existing setup and not a replacement. [edit]. voice to text transcriptions can be an alternative..

rglover 14y ago

If you're an interface designer (I am), you should pre-order this thing. This will be a standard form of interaction in a couple of years and you should jump on it early and start figuring out the kinks. Too cool.

sktrdie 14y ago
Yes!
weego 14y ago
It really won't. Have you any idea how tiring waving your arms around like that would be all day? There are so many use cases where it doesn't even work that would require a complete rethink of how anything is presented on in internet. For example how about the HN comments where it's pasted as code and it scrolls horizontally. Target that and scroll it with that system. As soon as you have a single use case where a mouse and keyboard is more effective you blow your value.
- rglover 14y ago
  Hm, maybe. But that was my point with saying interface designers should hop on this: they design the interaction to be simple enough that it doesn't wear you out (at least, that's how I'd look at one facet of designing for this). Moreover, it's not enough to just copy our current understanding of UI over to a form of input like this. Of course that's the natural inclination, but in reality, interfaces will change and adapt to things like this (meaning scrolling may not exist and a whole new form of pagination may be invented). The "how" is up to the designers. More than anything, you really articulated my point by saying that "it really won't." You're right: as things stand in terms of interaction, this would become tiring. You just have to think of a way to make it not.
- mr_luc 14y ago
  I'm familiar with the usual "arm-waving sucks" arguments against gesture-based inputs, but I was just wondering -- is there any reason this couldn't just replace the touchpad on laptops, maybe being integrated into the forward edge for a larger field of view? They do claim sub-mm accuracy; maybe applications in the small are realistic. So instead of arm-waving, think of rotating your hand just above the touchpad to rotate and object in 3d space, but briefly. And the touchpad would still work like a regular touchpad, but maybe you don't even need to touch it. Sub-mm accuracy seems to imply that really subtle gestures could work.

pbreit 14y ago

More demos: http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-hand/9742-1_53-50124905.html http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-hand/9... Funding announcement: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-announces-1275-million-series-a-funding-round-led-by-highland-capital-partners-2012-05-09 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-announces-1275-...

jamesrcole 14y ago

Looks like it'd be a nice augment to the usual keyboard & mouse/trackpad setup (& to a touchscreen, too). For some tasks (e.g. changing to a diff browser tab five across from the current one) I can imagine that pointing at it would be the quickest and easiest way to switch to it. I can imagine it'd get a bit tiring if you were relying on it too exclusively.

powatom 14y ago

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out - but I can't see it being widely adopted in the home any time soon. People who want gesture based stuff will use Kinect. However, I can see this being huge in the commercial market. I can easily imagine using something like this in a shop, or for presentations at work.

egypturnash 14y ago
Googling for "kinect price" gives me numbers of about $150; this is priced at $70. Even if we assume this is a discounted price to lure in pre-orders, that still leaves room for it to cost less. I would not think of getting a Kinect but my thought upon seeing the video was "I want to get one of these and use it to control the RasPi I'm sticking in some fake taxidermy along with a pico projector for a micro media PC."
flipbrad 14y ago
I think you're spot on. Every mall in the developed world could have easy to use 3D maps and offer/advert displays - that's a huge market right there, whether or not the desktop ends up being one.

gotrythis 14y ago

I've been searching all over for something like this as a potential mouse replacement to help with my finger tendinitis. I just pre-ordered. Also an interface designer, so I'm excited to see where this goes.

nextparadigms 14y ago

Google should be all over this. Microsoft has Kinect, there are rumors Apple has been working on it, too, and I know Google hired the product lead from Kinect a while ago (George something), but I haven't seen much come out of that. This could be very useful for Google TV and who knows what else in the future. Better to integrate it in the Google X lab.

netfire 14y ago

While waving your hand in front of a monitor looks pretty cool, its definitely not going to work well for most work or extended use. Also, I think the reason touch-based devices have caught on so well is that we like the tactile feedback of dragging our finger across a defined plane. I'd be interested to see what you could do if you projected an image onto a work surface to make that more interactive. Seems like it would be easier to draw or manipulate 2D things on a plane rather than trying to wave your hand in 3D space. (Image Manipulation, Graphic Editing, Maps, etc)

acgourley 14y ago

Let's have a constructive comment thread. Instead conveying love or hate for it, how about listing the cases it's good and bad for. good * Fruit Ninja - made for single finger input, short gameplay * Pinching and zooming maps - good because it's usually a short activity * CAD camera interactions - good for periodic strange rotation needs or showing a client that doesn't understand the normal movement hotkeys * Periodic writing with pencil tool bad * Shooters - can't turn player around, gameplay too long. * Longterm writing or drawing - too tiring

Cushman 14y ago
One of the things I've dreamed of using gestures for is controlling behavior (scrolling, navigation, etc.) in a second monitor without changing focus. I hope somebody implements that.
benjamincburns 14y ago
I'm not sure how they're handling variance in user perspective, but assuming they've got that figured out, if you were to couple this with a stereo vision setup and some form of haptic feedback a lot of companies doing 3D design (both CAD and 3D artwork) would eat this up. It won't replace a keyboard and mouse, but it would provide a much more "immersive" way of interacting with the media.
jamesfrank 14y ago
I disagree with you on the details a bit, but I think viewing this as good at somethings and bad at others is far more constructive than arguing that this should replace a mouse, keyboard etc. However, I would make the good/bad list a bit more general: * good for manipulating UI elements that represent 3D * bad for manipulating UI elements that represent 2D Maps and camera interactions (CAD) are perfect examples of things that represent 3D elements. Short games are another area that can represent 3D - longer games might also work well, but the user is likely to get tired of waving his/her arms around. Much of what we do on computers today is strictly 2D. Coding, word processing, most web browsing, email, etc. Pencil tools/drawing tools are similarly usually just a 2D activity, so using a 3D-capable tool and reducing your movements to 2D doesn't really make sense.
14y ago

SkyMarshal 14y ago

Love it. I was just wishing for this recently [1]. Now they just gotta turn it into a protocol and build it into monitors. 1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3988700 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3988700

Sidnicious 14y ago

I’d love to get one of these and play with it. Will the SDK and spec for talking to it be freely available after the initial batch of preorders and free dev kits? As a counterexample, Emoviv gave a TED talk a while ago showing off a headset that lets you control your computer with your mind. When you visit their website you discover that you can only develop with a $500 “developer edition” headset that comes with a single, nontransferrable license to use the SDK (additional licenses are $99). The consumer model of the headset only runs approved applications.

ChrisFornof 14y ago
Dev Kits ship for free to 20,000 developers in 1-3 months. Pre-orders are for consumers at $70 and ship this winter. The idea is to give all the hackers maximum access to create awesome apps and then deliver a healthy shiny ecosystem to the consumer. Also, we'd like to see a larger shift towards people creating things, so encouraging early adopters to get aboard the coding train is a positive trend. It's a huge new interaction space, and we're looking for innovators to explore it!
- Sidnicious 14y ago
  That’s awesome. Are there any differences between the consumer model and the dev kit, other than the price (and will people who bought the consumer model be able to develop with it later)? Other people have asked about openness… will there be any kind of control over what programs can use it (i.e. do they need to be approved by you guys to work?)
- elisk 14y ago
  So this will run approved software only as well? Well, that's a big turnoff for a dev. Why instead of maximizing the short term profit you concentrate on the long-term and make this system open with certain limitations to assure your business?
rogerbinns 14y ago
Contrast with Android where every device is a developer device - one tickbox in the settings is all that is required. No accounts, registration, handing over money, authorizing devices etc (yes I'm looking at you Apple).

cma 14y ago

Windows 8's tabletification will possibly end up being a smart move with the introduction of this thing.

blake8086 14y ago

Well I just pre-ordered one and applied for the dev kit. I don't even have a specific plan for this yet, but I think the 3-d object scanning ability alone makes this worth it.

kylebrown 14y ago

Wow.. I would love to develop for this. I dropped out of state U. after my 3rd year (math major), but that was years ago. At my current start-up, I have recently been forced to learn much more than I was expecting to about probabilistic graphical models and curve similarity measures (gladly though; always been interested in pattern recognition). Anyone with a vision for this, consider dropping me a line. I might be able to help.

chime 14y ago
I'd love to integrate it with my KType application ( http://ktype.net http://ktype.net ) or build a new software that converts hand gestures / ASL to speech. I think it's totally doable and would be a lot of fun technically too. What do you think?
- kylebrown 14y ago
  Well, off the top of my head I don't see a straightforward way to integrate with KType (nice work btw!). Just because there would be so many possibilities for mapping hand gestures to the KType actions/commands. On the other hand, converting sign language to text/speech seems like it should be quite straightforward. Not knowing anything about sign language, I'm assuming signs map (more or less) one-to-one with words. The input from LEAP appears to be extremely high resolution, so if the sign gestures are properly normalized (and judging from the demo video, it looks like the LEAP SDK itself already does a good degree of input normalization), you should be able to just train your classifier (neural network, SVM, etc.) right out of the box. Of course, things are never as easy as they look so in all likelihood there are plenty of complications I'm completely overlooking at first glance. But I agree with you 100% that it sounds totally doable.
  - btr41n 14y ago
    So sign language isn't really one-to-one, but that is something that I really want to work with, so I look forward to getting a unit. I think this system has a lot of potential as a learning tool! Awesome job guys!
- 14y ago

CubicleNinjas 14y ago

I'm happy that the team took their passion to execute one something so effectively. But not all ideas are good. It violates Fitt's law by placing all user interaction within a vertical band next to your computer. This is very uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most applications (because missing the interaction band is likely). If these were wireless gloves that I could more easily (with my arms in any location) then I'd love this.

pilgrim689 14y ago
"This is very uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most applications" You are forgetting that "most applications" are designed for a mouse and keyboard. A more useful critique would be to analyze the type of applications that can be built with LEAP in mind.
- CubicleNinjas 14y ago
  Why would "a more useful critique" be looking at pro-LEAP applications? Is it because this what you want to hear? LEAP is a bad idea, not bad due to software, bad due to the constraints of human beings. You're literally arguing a logical fallacy by the way: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Negative_proof http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Negative_proof
  - pilgrim689 14y ago
    You don't understand my point. I was picking at how you claimed that X was bad because it can't be used for applications designed for Y. I also doubt your understanding of "negative proof"... But that's off-topic
    - CubicleNinjas 14y ago
      I addressed your point directly.
FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
Maybe it could have a better use in a Minority Report style setting, recreating a large gesture based interface without requiring gigantic multi-touch screens. Sat in front of a desk, with a keyboard and mouse in front of you, I can imagine it will have some pretty attractive uses, but might not be as comfortable long-term as gesticulating at a mounted whiteboard.

natemartin 14y ago

Did anyone get an email confirmation after applying for the dev kit? After I hit the button, it reloaded to the home page, and I haven't seen any emails.

johnmmurray 14y ago
Nope... haven't gotten anything yet. :-(
ChrisFornof 14y ago
Website is a little wonky at the moment. Bear with us guys. We'll get you your kits soon enough.
- natemartin 14y ago
  Just wondering if I should fill it out a second time, since I never saw a confirmation screen. I understand it will take some time to ship, just want to know the application actually made it into the database! :)
georgieporgie 14y ago
I was taken to a confirmation page that read, "Your developer application has been confirmed. Thanks for your interest in Leap."

ChrisFornof 14y ago

Dev Kits (free) Ship international within 1-3 months. Pre-orders ($70) only ship domestic (for now) around winter. 20,000 dev kits are being made. We want to ensure this tech becomes ubiquitous. We're getting slammed with launch response. But if you guys have questions, we'll try to answer them here shortly. -Chris Community Builder

dmvaldman 14y ago
Waiting for the load to drop so I can try to get a preorder! Question: How can you render the "other side" of the hand at the 51+ second mark? If this is indeed possible, that's quite a remarkable technology you have.
- acgourley 14y ago
  I suspect it's an illusion and that does not represent their true 3d point cloud. It's probably a skinned 3d mesh of a hand which is then moving in sync with the detected hand.
  - Schwolop 14y ago
    Their webpage suggests they can handle multiple devices connected to the one PC, so I was wondering whether they had another sensor out of shot above the scene pointing downwards. Actually - scrap that. A better hunch is that it's not structured light at all, but actually an electric field sensor. See this Quora answer (disclaimer, by someone who "knows shit all about this"): http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/What-is-the-technology-behind-Leap-Motion http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/What-is-the-technology-behi...
georgieporgie 14y ago
Please give us some technical details to satisfy our curiosity. Perhaps I missed it on the website, but I didn't notice any mention of how it functions (IR? Sound waves?), what sort of range of distances it works in, etc.
vibrunazo 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

joshu 14y ago

Structured light?

EzGraphs 14y ago

Another interesting application not mentioned yet is 3d scanning... and their site mentions 3d modeling work as the initial motivation for the product.

saijanai 14y ago

signing and finger spelling. If it can be made portable, it is a HUGE breakthrough for certain people.

jamesflorentino 14y ago

This is gonna be a pain in the arm for photoshoppers. But i'm interested to see this technology grow into popularity. I can't believe we're actually having something like this in our time. 20 years ago, you can only see stuff like these in science fiction novels and movies.

abecedarius 14y ago

There's no perceptible latency in its response to gestures -- I'm very impressed assuming it's not a rigged demo. (In videos I've seen of the Kinect the software responds to a gesture only after a noticeable fraction of a second.)

paulbaumgart 14y ago
It's not a rigged demo. (I saw them film it.)
- abecedarius 14y ago
  Fantastic -- thanks.
kscottz 14y ago
It doesn't look like a rigged demo http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409264n http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409264n

squarecat 14y ago

We're almost there: http://youtubedoubler.com/49ni http://youtubedoubler.com/49ni (LEAP vs Minority Report)

iandanforth 14y ago

I'm sad the word 'robot' hasn't appeared in this thread yet. Let's correct that. Visual slam is great for medium distances, but pointclouds aren't really that dense and are slow to update. Also the lidar to make the point clouds is stupid expensive. Add one of these guys onto your robot and you've got a really cool set of 'wiskers.' Short range, highly sensitive, super fast update. I'd love to put several of these on a robot and use that to give it a sensitive field surrounding its body. Depending on how open the software and hardware are this will be a great addition to the robotics community.

abecedarius 14y ago
Great point. As far as openness, I'm concerned by this talk of an app store.
- lucian1900 14y ago
  Indeed. I was going to apply as a developer, but that made me pause. Perhaps I'll reconsider at some other time.
- hollerith 14y ago
  Even putting aside concerns about openness, the mere fact that they are talking this early about an app store is evidence that they're not focused on delivering value. Apple did not start talking about an app store for iDevices until they had millions of satisfied customers. I mean, why not use the Mac App Store? Maybe they have a good answer to that question, but if so, they should tell us what it is.
  - AndrewNoNumbers 14y ago
    Why would they use the Mac App Store? To throw profits to Apple?
    - jeffbcross 14y ago
      I was thinking Apple had this technology patented...maybe they have a licensing agreement that requires use of App Store.

auzieo 14y ago

ChrisFornof: What is the normal workflow after filling the dev kit application form? I got redirected to the homepage with no confirmation step or email. I wouldn't want to double-apply.

georgieporgie 14y ago
I was sent to a result page that read, "Your developer application has been confirmed. Thanks for your interest in Leap."

bitwize 14y ago

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo. Believe it when I see it live.

kreek 14y ago

Interfaces like this look cool in movies but your hands aren't 'designed' to be above your heart for an extended period of time. Now if you had something like a drafting table with a touch screen I'd be first in line.

pfraze 14y ago
Agreed, but I don't want a replacement interface; I want a companion to my keyboard. Type type type. Throw that away. Type type. Make that bigger. Type type type type. Run that. I can't wait.
- corysama 14y ago
  Mount it above your monitor pointing down instead of setting it below pointing up. Basically, point it at your keyboard. Type, type, type, lift your wrist a couple inches, pinch, zoom, drag.

formax 14y ago

I'm calling fake or very optimistic to say the least. The promo video doesn't show a physical device, the price point seems ridiculously low especially for a resolution of 0.01mm. And also there is this http://bit.ly/KOqDi2 http://bit.ly/KOqDi2 the physical hand and the point cloud don't match. It's like someone is moving their hand(s) fast to mimic the movement of the visualization.

dsirijus 14y ago
Been running a little through all the vids of it around. I'm still undecided. Perspective on each supposedly "fake" screenshot could explain the mismatch. In your example, you actually don't see how far his fingers are apart. Also, it might be attributed to that particular finger going to the borders of the 3D interaction space of Leap.

nollidge 14y ago

We asked one simple question: ‘What feel[’]s natural?’ Two or three hundred thousand[s] lines of code later The Leap is a small iPod[ ]sized USB peripheral Do you support [w]indows? When do dev-kits ship[ ] They are in serious need of a copyeditor.

amatsukawa 14y ago

They should mount this inside a keyboard, I don't want an extra dongle randomly lying on my table. On a completely different note, though, I wonder what the range on these things is. Could have excellent applications to robotics, I hope they don't completely close the vision outputs behind their own gesture APIs or something...

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I'd love something that was a combination of the two, a touch surface and something like this looking 'down' toward that surface at what my hands were doing. I could make typing like motions on the touch surface for typing. But more importantly mostly my hands would be resting on something rather than hanging out in front of me.

c0mpute 14y ago

Very interesting and looks slick (in the videos). So could this be a Flutter.io competitor? Flutter.io is purely software driven. I feel flutter will release a SDK/API as well at some point. So I think intuition suggests that whoever can execute these best, will likely succeed: - Rich feature set to capture gestures. - Simple API. Should be easy to integrate with 3rd party apps. - Performance. Leap already has an edge in that they are releasing a SDK, Flutter should follow this quickly (hopefully). Flutter makes it easy to get it to people as it is just pure software, but can they achieve capturing rich gestures? Exciting times.

Garbage 14y ago

From FAQ How can I get a free developer kit? We’re distributing thousands of kits to qualified developers, because, well, we want to see what kinds of incredible things you can all do with our technology. So wow us. Actually, register to get the SDK and a free Leap device first, and then wow us. Do you support windows? Yes! We also support native touch emulation for Windows 8. How about Linux? Linux support is on the agenda. When do dev-kits ship Depending on which batch you’re in; anywhere from 1-3 months. What are the tech specifications for the LEAP? TBD.

cbr 14y ago

This looks awesome, but very tiring.

mkramlich 14y ago

So the obvious weakness here is that this will be less precise than a control system that uses direct touch such as a keyboard, mouse or touch pen. It looks fun and dramatic though.

Someone 14y ago

The cynic in me thinks: - I have to see it before I believe it. - If this works as advertised, this company will never ship the product. They will be bought within months for a huge sum of money, even if they do not want to be bought. Reason for that is: - Litigation, litigation! They will need deep pockets to defend themselves against patent claims.

xilei 14y ago
Do you seriously think they haven't got that covered?

mikelbring 14y ago

First thing that came to my mind was Tony Stark's computer.

honzacz 14y ago

Add some weight bracelets on your wrists and work out while using your computer:)

postscapes1 14y ago

Surprised by the negative reactions here. If Kinect has shown us anything it is this thing will be used for a host of things not shown in their demo videos. Robots, Interactive Art, etc,

zooey 14y ago

not good...it's tiring to not rest your fingers on a surface. your muscles need to rest, your fingers need to touch.

nico_h 14y ago

Beside Google Maps and fruit ninja, what are the apps demoed in the video ?

dmbarbour 14y ago

I see a lot of potential for a new class of musical instruments based on waving your hands.

dfgonzalez 14y ago

I already want this as a captcha solution: Say 3 with your fingers to prove you are not a robot.